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User blog:Martialmaniac/Sources external to the manga and Nen types
I know that this discussion will give some of us PTSD, but I'd like to start it nonetheless. One of the things for which this wiki is most commonly criticized is its use of databooks, guides and even card games as reliable sources. My position on the matter used to be that it is up to the users to check their sources, but in the end I agree that those details belong in the trivia rather than the main body of the article, for a number of reasons. The first is reliability. When the guides came out, they contradicted no preexisting information, but as the series went on, doubts concerning their reliability emerged: Gon's age, some other birth dates, Hisoka's height were all contradicted later in the manga, and there is a possibility that the character called "Maha" in the databook is actually Zzigg Zoldyck (though as of right now I am not suggesting that we merge the two pages), plus the fact that it is quite probable that Nobunaga is not an Enhancer, given his arm-wrestling ranking but more importantly how he speaks about them. I wrote the timeline highlighting what information came from the databooks, highlighting its unreliability, and what had been retconned, so I believe that it is only fitting that we do the same for character articles. The second reason is canonicity. This wiki is primarily focused on the manga, the source material. We do not claim that anime-only events (from either version) have the same degree of canonicity, and in fact we tend to separate them and go with the manga version. The same should be the case for Nen types, and though at least one of the guidebooks bears Togashi's signature (with its canonicity still being questionable, also considering that it is common for such books not to be written by the author), Nen types "confirmed" by the anime or card game should definitely not appear in the main body of the article. It is true, I used to defend what I am now suggesting we change, and I don't know what to say about that. After talking to many people, separating the information just seems to me the best course of action. What this means in practice: # Characters (and abilities) whose Nen type was not confirmed in the manga should not be said to be from that Nen type in their "Nen" section, but only among the trivia. # Information from the guides (and arguably even anime, but we may leave that aside for now) such as blood type and age can be kept in the character templates, but on top of being sourced as being from the databooks it must be colored purple (for consistency with the colors used in the timeline, but red would arguably be better; I could swap them in the timeline then) to highlight that its reliability is questionable. # Where that information is contradicted by the manga, it should be removed from the template and only mentioned in the trivia. This would be the case with Gon's age (or at least his birthday) and Hisoka's height, for example. # Information from card games and such should appear in the Trivia section only, if at all. This is only one possible course of action, and there are points in favor of mentioning all databook info, or at least Nen types, exclusively in the Trivia, and not also in the template when not contradicted. I recently turned in my dissertation, so I can certainly make all the necessary changes myself; I would however like to hear what you guys think about it and to agree on what changes to make exactly before proceeding. Below are a few examples of what I mean: Gon's age in the manga contradicting his date of birth in the databook can be mentioned in the Trivia (as there is no real inconsistency if the databook info is neglected), as well as possibly the fact that now he might be 13 or 14. Alternatively, Netero's Nen type might be removed from the template altogether; I suggested keeping it only because information such as Chrollo's weight and height is assumed to be preserved in the template. Category:Blog posts